Introduction

Before enabling the Customer Portal to your customers, there are a few settings that you might want to review and update if needed due to layout changes and the new booking workflow of the new Customer Portal.

Step 1: Review Request Links

When requesting bookings, customers will first need to select a booking category asking them if they want to request a reservation, appointment, or group class. You can customize which of those three options appear, and how they are worded, depending on the services you offer. If you started offering new services recently and didn't know to update these, now is a great time to do so.

Service Request Links can link to three places:

• New Reservation Page: this page is used for multi-day or single-day reservations that are not appointment-based (e.g. boarding and daycare).
  
  
• New Appointment Page: this page is used for single-day reservations that are appointment-based (e.g. grooming and training).
  
  
• Group Class Enrollment Page: this page is used to show all of your group classes and to allow customers to enroll.

To review and update your request links, follow these steps:

1. Navigate to Left-hand Navigation: Admin » Portal Customization.
   
   
2. Use the pencil icon to edit any of your Request Links that need to be updated. You will only need to make updates to the Titles, as the links will automatically redirect once the new Customer Portal is enabled.
   
   
3. For more information on updating Request Links, please see our article Set Up Request Links for the Customer Portal.
   
   

Step 2: Review Reservation, Appointment, Services, and Deposit Custom Text

The new layout of the Customer Portal brings more emphasis to your Custom Text options in Gingr. You can add custom text to a variety of different places to notify customers of important information and really promote your business and services!

To review and update the various custom text options for the Customer Portal, follow these steps:

1. Navigate to Left-hand Navigation: Admin » Reservation and Appointment Requests.
   
   
2. Review Reservation Request Text. This text will appear on the left-hand side of the booking page for your customers to review before selecting the type of reservation they are looking to book.
   
   
   
   
3. Review Appointment Custom Text. This text will appear on the left-hand side of the appointment booking page for your customers to review before selecting the type of appointment they are looking to book.
   
   
   
   
4. Review Reservation Request Services Text. This text will appear in a pop-up if a customer requests a reservation, but does not select any additional services for their pet during their stay. This is a great place to try and upsell the customer some of the amazing services that you offer. Leave it blank if you do not want a pop-up message to appear.
   
   
5. Review Deposit Policies Custom Text. This text will appear as your customers go to submit payment for any deposits.
   
   

Step 3: Review New Portal Customization Settings

With the Customer Portal, there are new options for customization that were not available before. These new settings will allow you to enable or disable certain pages and actions on the Customer Portal like the ability to show Webcams, Rewards Points, and more.

Take a moment to think about which of these features you use for your business, and whether or not you want your customers to be able to view or complete these actions through their online Portal.

1. Navigate to Left-hand Navigation: Admin » Portal Customization.
   
   
2. Enable or disable the following settings depending on your business:

• Allow Package Purchases from the portal? This will hide the Shop Packages page from the new portal if you don’t allow customers to purchase any prepaid packages online.
  
  
• Allow Retail Purchases from the portal? This will hide the Shop Retail page from the new portal if you don’t allow customers to purchase any retail online for in-store pickup.
  
  
• Allow Subscription Purchases from the portal? This will hide the Shop Subscriptions page from the new portal if you don’t allow customers to start their own package subscriptions online.
  
  
• Show Rates section on the portal? This will hide the View Rates page from the new portal if you don’t want customers to see any of their rates for reservation types and services in the portal.
  
  
• Show Reward Points balance on the portal? This will hide the Reward Points page from the new portal if you don’t use the Gingr Loyalty Rewards feature.
  
  
• Show Webcams link on the portal? This will hide the Live Webcams page from the new portal if you don't use webcams with Gingr.

Related Resources

• Go Live with Customer Portal Topic Outline
• Test Customer Portal How-To
• Enable Customer Portal How-To
• Notify Customers of Customer Portal How-To